Melissa Ratter and Sara Allman made their room a home and became friends in the process.

Melissa and Sara share a love for bright colors that manifests itself all over their room

One student’s story of figuring out how to make a home in a cold, bare dorm room with a complete stranger.

As I turned the doorknob and walked in, I stared at the room I would be living in for the next nine months—or possibly four years—of my life. I was greeted by undecorated white walls, empty drawers and closets, and a stack of naked bunk beds. This is supposed to be my home?

Sabbath afternoon at the Nazario’s builds friendships for a lifetime in a home for all to enjoy. Students love the food, too.

Nearly every Friday night Kathy Fogg whips up a large batch of cinnimon and caramel rolls to share with a houseful of students.

For many Union College students, finding ways to make Union a home keeps them coming back each year to graduate. But for Nathan Huggins, finding a place like home is what brought him to Union.

Stationed at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nathan wanted to spend the Sabbath hours with people who shared his new faith. He had recently started attending an Omaha area Adventist church, but his search for a Friday evening vespers service led him to make the drive to Lincoln.

It is a miracle really, when we think about it, how people meet, how lives merge, how a home is made; the journey, the love, the promises that make it so.

A house, well, a house is a different story all together. A house can be made relatively quickly. The process is fairly straight forward. Get the supplies. Get a crew. Hammer. Sweat. Work hard. Work really hard. And then, there it is, in a matter of months if all goes well.

Carlson decorates her home with beauty and meaning that tells her family's story.

Home. A small word. Two consonants. Two vowels. Yet this humble word matters. This word counts. It can conjure up a million different images and evoke a thousand different feelings in all of us. Familial abode, physical space, or emotional solace; it connects us to what matters. For Kendra Carlson, who claimed the whole west coast as home growing up, this word has since come to evoke something much more specific. These days, a renovated old house in Lincoln, Neb., is the hub from which Carlson’s world emanates.

Byard Parks, his wife, Ania, and their sons, Samuel and Elijah, enjoyed a trip to the olive oil factory on Christmas day 2012. The plant squeezed 11 liters of oil out of 70 kilos of olives the family picked that morning.

Byard Parks and his family enjoy meals like this typical Turkish spread of fruit, cheese, olives and other delicacies.

Have you ever tried to picture Heaven—to truly imagine the sights, sounds and feelings that will come with finally getting there? For Byard Parks ’92, Heaven is not some gold-plated, shimmery idea, it is a real place filled with laughter, music and the warmth of unique people sharing their experiences together. Heaven is home, and for a world-traveler like Parks, home is a sacred, treasured place—a place to create, to connect, to protect.

Minimalism. For most people, the word conjures up images of modern apartments with sparse decor. But for Union College graduate Lorilee Ross Lippincott ’03, minimalism is a way of life that stretches beyond modern decorating.

“For my family, minimalism means living intentionally,” she explains. “Technically, the term means buying and having fewer things. But we’ve taken an approach to minimalism that allows us to have fewer responsibilities and expectations in the negative sense of the words.”

Dean '68 and Sherri Johnson ('69) Fandrich built their business Sutter Place Interiors around partnering with clients

For Dean ’68 and Sherri Johnson (’69) Fandrich, helping people create the perfect home has become far more than a way to earn a living.

Even though their business is to design and furnish home interiors, forty years of business—and before that at Union College—taught Dean and Sherri Fandrich that relationships are what matter both in business and in life.

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Iliana Panameno graduated with a degree in social work this spring, and will intern at the Institute of Philanthropy and Voluntary Service in Washington, D.C. before continuing her studies at a graduate level.

When senior White House policy analyst Allan Manuel visited Union College in November 2012 to encourage students to explore a career in civil service, Iliana Panameno couldn’t attend his chapel talk. But with Manuel’s help, Panameno, a senior social work major, will spend the summer as an intern at the Institute for Philanthropy and Voluntary Service in Washington, D.C.

The students in Jill Morstad’s Basic Skills in English class each wrote a fictional children’s tale describing the story of a Beanie Baby. This summer the stories, translated into Spanish, will be sent along with the toys to children in a Honduran orphanage.

For students in Jill Morstad’s Basic Skills in English class, learning became much more real than learning how to order words on a page. This spring, the 16 students undertook an unusual project to benefit orphans at the Pan American Health Service, Inc.’s orphanage in Peña Blanca, Honduras, while enhancing their own communication skills.

The achievements of our students would not be possible without the support of those who came before. To continue that tradition, give to Union online on May 16.

On Sunday, May 5, 155 students received a diploma from Union College. Each graduate’s achievement required years of hard work, dedication, personal growth … and your generosity. Union's alumni and other supporters provide 26 percent of the total cost of educating our students each year, and those gifts allow us to continue offering a quality, Christian education to students of all socio-economic backgrounds without taxpayer subsidies.

Last night around 10:00 p.m. a lawn sprinkler control panel caught fire in the mechanical room in basement of the Dick Building. While a few people where working in the building at the time, everybody was evacuated without incident. Damage from the fire was minimal, but some smoke circulated throughout the building.

The Dick Building will be open as usual on Thursday, May 2. The smoke has been cleared from the building, but employees who have any allergies or sensitivity to smoke may contact their supervisors to make alternate work arrangements.

After a one-year hiatus, Union College will once again offer a summer math workshop for math educators at all levels—kindergarten through college. Under the direction of Union College mathematics professor Larry Ray, the one-week course will focus on bringing together teachers from every level to enhance teaching skills. Discussions and learning activities will emphasize implementation of the NAD-USA Elementary Math Standards 2012, which are closely aligned with the new Common Core State Standards.

As part of the National Library Week 2013 celebration, Union College Library has presented its Teacher of the Year Award to Dr. Frankie Rose, Assistant Professor of Biology. Approximately twenty Physician Assistant students and faculty members nominated Rose, each one sharing stories of his passion for teaching and his integration of library resources into classroom activities.

This school year, Union College launched the Center for Interfaith Studies and Culture, a center devoted to educating Union College to better serve people of different faiths and to foster goodwill and understanding between the school and other faith groups.

On April 20, Doug Hardt, the center’s director will present an overview of the content and historical context of the Qu’ran at 4 p.m. in the Shawnee-Porter Care Conference Room at Union College.

The "Our Promising Future" campaign helps to fund the construction of Union's new science and mathematics building—scheduled for completion at the end of 2013.

Union College’s new science and mathematics complex is nearing reality—both physically and financially. Already the framework for the new 58,000-square-foot building towers over what used to be parking lots between Rees Hall and Larson Lifestyle Center on the north side of the campus, and the complex is well on its way to completion at the end of the calendar year.

Social activist and author Shane Claiborne will wrap up Peace Week 2013 at Union College with a talk on Sunday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m.

“Union College is a center for peacemaking just as Christianity is a center,” said Chris Blake. “We want to be children of God just as Jesus said: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’”

This weekend many Union College alumni have travelled back to their alma mater to reconnect with classmates and the institution that played a significant role in their lives. For everyone else, Union College will webcast select events from Homecoming Weekend 2013 live on UCLive this weekend.

Every other year, Union College students present a walk through Resurrection Pageant on the Saturday of Easter Weekend. This scene from 2011 depicts Jesus being brought before Pilate.

During the week celebrated by the Christian world commemorating the final events in the life of Christ, including his death and resurrection, Union College students will be able to follow the story at a series of events throughout the week highlighted by a Resurrection Pageant, which will unfold on March 30 on the Union College campus, with tours starting every 20 minutes between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.

The Association for Seventh-day Adventist Historians (ASDAH) will hold their seventh triennial conference at Union College on March 21-24, 2013. Adventist scholars from around the U.S. and the world will convene to present and discuss the theme, “Adventist Transitions between 1880 and 1920.”

Students will soon eagerly depart campus for exotic destinations as spring break approaches, but the Union College campus will be far from empty without them.

From March 7-14, youth directors and youth pastors from across North America will gather at Union College for the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s North American Division (NAD) Youth Ministries Annual Committee Meetings. The meetings see numerous researchers, administrators and pastors convening to discuss issues relating to youth and young adults in the U.S., Canada and Bermuda.